Of the 10 vessels involved in the hunt for the missing submersible Titan, five are now at the search site but four others listed by the US Coast Guard won’t get there today, according to marine tracking data.
The coast guard said yesterday that the sub had around 40 hours of air left. This would mean its air supply could run out on Thursday at around 6am local time (9.30am UK time).
The research vessel Polar Prince remains near the Titanic wreck site in a remote part of the Atlantic Ocean. It towed the missing Titan submersible and is operated by OceanGate, the sub’s owner. The US Coast Guard is using the research boat as their “unified command”.
It was joined by Bahamian pipe-laying vessel Deep Energy at around 7am local time on Tuesday, 37 hours after the US Coast Guard received the first report of a problem. Deep Energy has been using unmanned remotely operated vehicles, known as ROVs, to scan underwater.
Commercial Vessel Skandi Vinland joined them at around 7pm local time on Tuesday. It’s got two ROVs onboard. Canadian coast guard vessels John Cabot and Atlantic Merlin arrived on Wednesday morning. The John Cabot has side-scanning sonar capabilities.
The US Coast Guard said on Tuesday that there were 10 vessels involved in the search.
Data from vessel tracking website MarineTraffic shows that three of the 10 boats were in St John’s port in Canada yesterday evening. All of them left between 2.30am and 7.30am local time this morning.
French vessel likely to arrive next
French research vessel L’Atalante is likely to be the next boat to arrive. The tracking data says it’s travelling at speeds between 10 and 13 knots so will arrive this evening between 8pm and 11pm. It has onboard a robot called the Victor 6000.
It can help cut cables or conduct manoeuvres to help release a stranded vessel, but is not capable of lifting by itself.
The other four ships involved in the rescue are unlikely to arrive today based on their current speeds and distances left to travel.
They include two Canadian coast guard vessels, a Canadian navy ship and private vessel, Horizon Arctic.
The MarineTraffic data suggests these four boats will arrive anytime between 3am and 8am local time tomorrow morning.
The Horizon Arctic is believed to have a Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS) onboard. It’s a winch and cable long enough to pull something like a submersible to the surface.
